Start
by starlight.moon.princess
Summary: The start of - well, everything. / Albus and Gellert meet for the first time. Pre-slash


**For Camp Potter (History - write about Gellert Grindelwald); the If You Dare Challenge (536. Chosen Path); the HP Potions Competition (Bundimun Pomade) and the Fantastic Beasts Challenge (Pogrebin)**

**Note: Yes, I know the two of them don't meet until after Albus is done with Hogwarts, but I took a few liberties with the timeline here. Also, Gellert refers to Bathilda as his aunt because I find the idea of her being his great aunt a bit odd. The Wiki says that the life expectancy for wizards was about 137 in the 1990s. Considering the fact that Dumbledore died at the age of about 115, if Bathilda was indeed two generations older to him, she would have been at least 170+ at the time of the sixth book, before Nagini took over her body, which seems rather unlikely. So I've modified the relationship to fit.**

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Albus scowled, stalking out of his home. He couldn't understand why his family refused to recognise the fact that sometimes he just needed some time alone, away from people who couldn't appreciate his genius and the things he intended to do after leaving Hogwarts.

He had every aim of going to the old church in the graveyard, a place where he knew that no one was going to interrupt him, when Ms Bagshot from the house next to him called out to him.

"Albus!" she called, waving her hand, "Could you come over here please?"

Holding in an irritated sigh, Albus abruptly changed directions to approach the Bagshot home.

"Hello, Ms Bagshot," he said, forcing himself to be cordial.

"Hello dear," she replied, "I wanted to introduce you to someone." She gestured to him to follow her inside the house, and as they walked in, she continued, "My nephew has just arrived from Durmstrang. He has decided to finish his last year of schooling privately in England, and I think the two of you could really become good friends."

Again, Albus had to force himself not to sigh. He very much doubted that there was any chance this mysterious nephew of Ms Bagshot's would hold any interest for him. There was no one he had met to date who could match up to his intelligence, and there was little evidence that this person would be any different. But he followed behind Ms Bagshot nonetheless, determined to pretend to be courteous lest any knowledge of his misbehaviour get back to his mother.

He followed her up the stairs to the attic, already planning a graceful way to exit the house after talking to the boy for a few moments.

"And…here we are!" she cheerfully exclaimed, throwing open a door. A tall man had his back towards them, looking out of the window. "Gellert, dear, here's Albus. You remember him right? He's the boy I was talking about to you yesterday night?"

"Thank you, Aunt Bathilda," the man said without turning. He had a deep, masculine voice, and despite himself, Albus found himself becoming intrigued.

"Well…" Ms Bagshot said, looking between the two of them. "I'll leave you two alone!" she finally said, turning around and walking out of the room.

The man waited for a few moments after Ms Bagshot walked out of the room before turning around. As soon as he did, however, Albus was immediately captivated. The man – Gellert, Ms Bagshot had said his name was – was extraordinarily handsome, almost as though he was a mortal copy of the way Adonis, the goddess Aphrodite's lover, was supposed to look like. There was a part of him that immediately decided that it did not matter how brain numbingly dull he turned out to be – if only for his beauty, Albus would make sure to keep in contact with him.

"I have heard a lot about you, Mr Dumbledore," the man – Gellert – said sikily, breaking Albus out of his thoughts.

"Please, call me Albus," he scrambled to reply. "I am rather surprised to hear you say that though. I do not imagine that Ms Bagshot would have talked much about me, Mr-"

"Grindelwald," the man said, "But please, I must insist you call me Gellert. And you are right; my aunt did not talk overmuch about you. But once she mentioned you, I took upon myself to do some research of my own. You are a very fascinating creature, Albus."

Albus had to fight not to blush at the praise he was being offered. The fact that it was Gellert doing the praising did not help matters either. "How so?" he asked, determined to be at least slightly hard to read. Gellert had piqued his fascination, and he wanted to make sure he got the same reaction from the other man.

"I heard some rumours of you being offered a job to study dragon blood and its possible new uses under Nicolas Flamel," Gellert said. "There were many surprised that someone of your age would be offered such a prestigious job. But I wasn't – Flamel would only have selected the best as his aide. No, what fascinated me was the fact that you lived so close to my own home. When my aunt told me about you, I was very interested in arranging a meeting with you, you see."

"You are interested in alchemy?" Albus asked. This seemed to be one of the rare times when he was destined to be surprised. Perhaps he had judged Gellert too quickly…

"Indeed I am, Albus. My knowledge is not anywhere near as good as yours of course, but I was hoping you would be willing to help me remedy that."

"Of course!" Albus exclaimed, before wincing inwardly. Sounding so eager was not the best way to hide how attracted he was to the man.

"Come, sit," Gellert said, taking a seat on his bed and beckoning Albus to sit next to him. "If you are willing, let us start my first lesson right now."

Albus walked towards the man, a strange feeling rising up in him. He did not know what would come of this tentative new friendship he was forming, but he could not shake the suspicion that it would dictate much of the future.

He quickly shook himself off. He was being stupid – there was no way a simple friendship could affect the world as greatly as he felt it would. Anyways, Gellert was waiting for him, and suddenly, that seemed like the most important fact in the world. He wasn't about to delay their talk any longer than he had to – the feelings could wait. He had a gorgeous man in front of him, and that was all that mattered at the moment.

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**I hope you guys enjoy! As always, please don't forget to drop a review on your way out :)**


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